London, 24 October 2014 – Impact Oil and Gas (“Impact”), the African-focused pure exploration Company, is pleased to announce the award of a new exploration licence covering the AGC Profond block, located offshore, in the Senegal Guinea Bissau Joint Development Zone (“AGC”) by the ‘Agence de Gestion et de Coopération entre la Guinée-Bissau et le Sénégal’.
The offshore AGC Profond licence covers approximately 6,700km², in water depths ranging from 1,000m to over 3,000m and is located in a proven petroleum area west of the Dome Flore and Dome Gea oilfields, adjacent to Impact’s Block 4B, offshore Guinea-Bissau. This new licence increases Impact’s total licence holding offshore Africa to over 100,000km2 (gross).
AGC Profond was previously held by a consortium led by Ophir Energy plc, which drilled the Kora-1 well in the northern part of the Block in 2011. The well was located on the crest of a salt piercement feature and encountered claystone and interebedded limestones rather than the prognosed sandstone reservoir facies. However, Impact believes that the Block remains very prospective – particularly for Cretaceous fans which have been the target for recent successful drilling in Cairn’s Senegal Sagomar licence located to the north of the AGC Profond Block. The licence area immediately to the east of the AGC Profond Block has been awarded to Oryx Petroleum.
The initial term of Impact’s licence lasts for three years. During this period Impact expects to acquire, reprocess and interpret existing data on the licence. Further seismic may be acquired if it is deemed necessary. A well could be drilled before the end of the first period or during the first renewal period which lasts for two years.
Impact as Operator has an 85% interest, together with Enterprise AGC S.A., a Senegal registered company, holding 15% in the licence.
Executive Chairman, Mike Doherty said:
“The award of offshore AGC Profond, Impact’s second licence in the petroliferous Casmance basin, is an exciting addition to our growing world class porftolio of assets. The recent discovery in the Sangomar licence, announced by Cairn, has highlighted offshore Senegal as a very prospective region for good quality oils. As with our other licences, we look forward to moving ahead quickly to explore this promising area.”